The School That Vision Built: Prologue

Prologue

The original title page

The school is the man. Nyack College cannot be defined any other way.

The familiar sights and sounds of the hillside campus – the mixture of the functional blockhouses, historic structures and mellowed mansions … the clamor of classroom bells and roar of a close-fought game … the measured cadence of gown-clad graduates and overlong ceremonies – all the things that seem to be the school are but the accessories of a dream. A vision articulated in human terms.

That man was Albert B. Simpson.

Nyack College carries out his vision like the lengthening profile of a figure in history standing taller through the passage of years. The school is the man.

What was his vision?

The concern of a world Christian. Simpson was troubled over masses of people unreached by the gospel, perplexed with conventional religion that seemed untouched by their lostness, yet he was enthused about the untapped potential within the church.

He took the world for his parish.

“Evangelize the neglected peoples of the world with the neglected resources of the church” became his rallying cry in education and everything else he undertook. Though now worn thin by time, that slogan was remarkable in Simpson’s day. Even revolutionary.